discouraged- should I move my mcat?

[kenzmed]

Hi friends, just took my third FL and got a 492 and I need advice!! I scored a lot lower than my last FL (497) but at this point I don't feel like I'll be breaking 500 anytime soon. I'm officially a month away from my MCAT and I know everyone says to not take it until you're ready. I'm really frustrated, I have a million things going on so I never get time to fully focus on my studying. I've switched over to anki and aamc practice and stopped using the TPR books. Should I just consider moving it? I'm planning on applying to mostly DO schools so when would be the latest I could submit without being too late? Any advice helps, thx!

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[gyngyn]

Cancel it.
Don't waste your last FL until you have dramatically re-vamped your study strategy.
It's more important that you submit a strong application than submitting in this year's cycle.

 

[RN2physician]

I was just about to make a post like this. I test next month as well and took my first aamc full length today, scored a 486. Absolutely shocked. I haven't reviewed it to see where I went wrong, but I was not expecting that. Took the blueprint full length diagnostic last month and got a 497 so I was hoping for a 500 at least.
I think if you plan on applying mainly DO then you should be alright taking a later MCAT and submitting your application later in the upcoming cycle? That's what I may plan to do.

 

[kenzmed]

I was just about to make a post like this. I test next month as well and took my first aamc full length today, scored a 486. Absolutely shocked. I haven't reviewed it to see where I went wrong, but I was not expecting that. Took the blueprint full length diagnostic last month and got a 497 so I was hoping for a 500 at least.
I think if you plan on applying mainly DO then you should be alright taking a later MCAT and submitting your application later in the upcoming cycle? That's what I may plan to do.

I also took the blueprint FL 2 weeks ago and took my first aamc FL today so maybe BP is not the best representative? I'm sort of lost on what to do. I'm honestly aiming for ~505 and I'd thought I'd be close to my goal by now. So discouraging. I'm thinking about possibly taking it at a later date but I'm not sure what would be considered late. Makes me feel better that I'm not alone in this struggle though, best of luck to you

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Scribd is 10 dollars per month and has a Kaplan book for each main test subject. They’re not bad for content review and I would recommend reading each from start to finish, supplementing with videos on stuff that is confusing. Do this content review before practicing anymore tests or question banks

 

[Dr Meow]

Yes move it. 2 bad scores can end your medical path. 1 bad score is severely damaging.
Also, if you take it but don't think you did well, YOU SHOULD VOID. There's a button at the end of tested that says VOID.

I voided the mcat 2-3 times. Scored it on my 3rd/4th time (forgot exactly how many times I took mcat).
But I only scored once. Had I scored each time, I WOULD BE FINISHED. DONE. Never could have gotten into anything.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Yes move it. 2 bad scores can end your medical path. 1 bad score is severely damaging.
Also, if you take it but don't think you did well, YOU SHOULD VOID. There's a button at the end of tested that says VOID.

I voided the mcat 2-3 times. Scored it on my 3rd/4th time (forgot exactly how many times I took mcat).
But I only scored once. Had I scored each time, I WOULD BE FINISHED. DONE. Never could have gotten into anything.

How do you know you did poorly on the voided ones. Maybe I’m just delusional, but I tend to think I did good on every test, even when I do bad.

I’ve seen the opposite too. People who think they do poorly and get an A

 

[Dr Meow]

How do you know you did poorly on the voided ones. Maybe I’m just delusional, but I tend to think I did good on every test, even when I do bad.

I’ve seen the opposite too. People who think they do poorly and get an A

That depends on personality more I think. I tend to assume I do bad more than I do good. So when I FEEL like I do good, It means I very likely did well.
But my voids were obvious. I didn't have time to even read a lot of the questions. Had to skip so many. And there were too many "I have no clues".
Also my FL scores were terrible then. (Like....old mcat scale....hmm aorund bottom 20 percentile. I scored 4's on my FL verbal)
Then fast forwards around 5 years later, on my 4th try, I was scoring around 505 - 510 on my FL's. Finally got the average, 508 on the real thing.

So definitely, your FL's are still the best indicator.

 

[kenzmed]

Yes move it. 2 bad scores can end your medical path. 1 bad score is severely damaging.
Also, if you take it but don't think you did well, YOU SHOULD VOID. There's a button at the end of tested that says VOID.

I voided the mcat 2-3 times. Scored it on my 3rd/4th time (forgot exactly how many times I took mcat).
But I only scored once. Had I scored each time, I WOULD BE FINISHED. DONE. Never could have gotten into anything.

I ended up moving it to June. Didn't know you could void your score.. does it still count as 1 of the 7 lifetime tries?

 

[kenzmed]

Scribd is 10 dollars per month and has a Kaplan book for each main test subject. They’re not bad for content review and I would recommend reading each from start to finish, supplementing with videos on stuff that is confusing. Do this content review before practicing anymore tests or question banks

I'll look into Kaplan. Princeton review is so detailed and I kinda hate it now. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[gyngyn]

does it still count as 1 of the 7 lifetime tries?

Yes. Void it anyway if you have a bad day (as described above).